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Department of Health

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend. In answer to the question from Labour Members, that is devastating. Apart from giggling and making snide remarks, I ask them to reflect on what has come from this Government’s unprecedented spending. During the years when the Conservatives were in power, there were real, above-inflation increases in health spending every year and improvements in productivity. If the health service had continued to improve as it did under the Conservatives, waiting lists would have been removed altogether in this country. [Laughter.] Labour Members might want to laugh and cackle like hyenas, but their Government’s target-driven, centrally controlled NHS is heading for absolute crisis and catastrophe. We have only seen the beginning of the job cuts and political unrest that will be unleashed by this Government’s failure in health care. If we examine the issue of productivity a little more, we see that this Government inherited the strongest economy in Europe when they came to power. It was Derek Scott, Tony Blair’s former economic adviser, who said—